WWE Smackdown house show report
February 11, 2012
San Francisco, Calif. at Cow Palace
Report by Amir Khostavan, PWTorch reader

Tony Chimel was the ring announcer for the night. He welcomed everyone and began the night with a pre-recorded version of the Star Spangled Banner.

(1) The Great Khali beat Jinder Mahal with a chokeslam. Afterwards, Cody Rhodes ran up to the ring and hit the beautiful disaster kick on Khali. He then went to the top of the ramp, waited for a microphone for a couple minutes until he was finally given one, and cut a promo about winning Elimination Chamber and becoming the first dual IC champ and World Heavyweight champ in WWE history.

(2) Ezekiel Jackson beat Hunico via DQ. When Zeke had Hunico in the Torture Rack, Camacho came into the ring and tackled Zeke's legs, causing the DQ. As they beat down Zeke, Ted DiBiase ran in for the save and then cut a promo setting up a tag match.

(3) Ezekiel Jackson & Ted DiBiase beat Hunico & Camacho. DiBiase hit his finisher on Hunico for the pin. Great response for DiBiase; the crowd was really into him.

(4) Alicia Fox beat Natalya. This was surprisingly a pretty good Divas match. Alicia hit some great moves, and it didn't seem like she botched anything.

Heath Slater came to the ring and cut a promo about Hornswoggle, and how he's been a thorn in Slater's side ever since coming to Smackdown. Hornswoggle came to the ring, which drew a big pop, and then he motioned to the entrance ramp. Big E. Langston from FCW came to the ring.

(5) Big E. Langston beat Heath Slater. Clean pin for Langston. Afterwards, Rhodes ran back into the ring again, this time hitting Cross Rhodes on Langston. As the beat down continued, Justin Gabriel ran to the ring for the save.

(6) IC champion Cody Rhodes beat Justin Gabriel to retain the IC Title. Cody gathered massive heat as he stalled for a good five minutes before making his way into the ring to begin competing. GREAT heat for Rhodes. After the pin, Rhodes went after Hornswoggle, who remained at ringside during this match and at one point had a chair in his hand to protect himself from Rhodes on the outside. While going after Hornswoggle, Khali made the save.

Tony Chimel announced Ricardo Rodriquez, and Ricardo introduced Alberto Del Rio to a mix of cheers and boos. Del Rio cut a promo about how great it was to be back, and actually said that it would be a pleasure to wrestle tonight in Northern California because he knew there was a big Mexican community here. He then claimed the only reason Sheamus won the 2012 Rumble was because Del Rio couldn't compete in it. Out came Sheamus to the biggest reaction of the night. Sheamus challenged Del Rio, but Del Rio said he's still not medically cleared to wrestle, so instead, he proposed an arm-wrestling match. (By the way, the sound system in the Cow Palace was horrible, so most of the time, it was hard to hear what was being said. Therefore, the crowd didn't know that an arm-wrestling match was actually going to take place until they brought out the table for it.)

(7) Alberto Del Rio vs. Sheamus in an Arm-Wrestling contest went to a No Contest, as Ricardo attacked Sheamus right before he was going to win. Sheamus went after Del Rio, but he left the ring, leaving Sheamus to deliver the Brogue Kick to Ricardo.

(8) Big Show beat World Hvt. champion Daniel Bryan via DQ; Bryan retained the World Title. Rhodes and Mahal interfered in the match to cause the DQ. Right before, Bryan went to the top rope, but as he came down, Big Show delivered the WMD punch that knocked out Bryan for the rest of the match.

Sheamus came in for the save, and Show and Sheamus stood tall as they cleared the ring. Afterwards, in the funniest moment of the night, Bryan finally woke up thinking he'd lost the title, keeled over in shame. The ref then delivered the title to him, and at that point, Bryan jumped up enthusiastically, claiming he was still World champ.

(9) Randy Orton beat Wade Barret via RKO in a Steel Cage match. Great, physical match between the two with equal offense from both. The crowd was spent at this point and there was little cheering throughout the match, but the RKO got a huge pop, as did Orton's entrance.

He hosted the weekly Pro Wrestling Focus radio show on KFAN in the early 1990s and hosted the Ultimate Insiders DVD series distributed in retail stories internationally in the mid-2000s including interviews filmed in Los Angeles with Vince Russo & Ed Ferrara and Matt & Jeff Hardy. He currently hosts the most listened to pro wrestling audio show in the world, (the PWTorch Livecast, top ranked in iTunes)

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